Boarshead Theater

Boarshead Theater was a professional company founded in 1966 by John Peakes and Richard Thomsen. The prolific theater continued to produce shows until 2009. Originally, performances took place in the Ledges Playhouse in Grand Ledge. Eventually, the company found a home in downtown Lansing in a building known as the Center for the Arts, though they continued for several seasons to produce summer shows at the Ledges Playhouse facility.

As a professional company, Boarshead typically falls outside what we are trying to accomplish with this document. For that reason, information on this page is spotty and far from complete. However, notable community theater veterans such as Leanor Reizen and Bill Helder performed occasionally with Boarshead, and some of those credits have been added to the database where known.

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Unless otherwise noted, regular Boarshead Theater seasons were performed at the Center for the Arts in downtown Lansing and summer seasons were performed at the Ledges Playhouse at Fitzgerald Park in Grand Ledge.

1974 Summer Season

• The Knack (May)
• Butterflies Are Free (May 23-Jun ?)
• Our Town (June 19-30)
• Arsenic and Old Lace
• Fiddler on the Roof
• The Time of Your Life (Jul 31-Aug 11)
• Barefoot in the Park
• I Do, I Do

1975 Summer Season

• Man of LaMancha
• The Sound of Music (Jul 23-Aug 10)
• The Man Who Came to Dinner (Aug 13-24)

1976 Season

• The Owl and the Pussycat (February 26-March 14)
• Born Yesterday (March 18-April 4)
• Who's Happy Now? (April 8-April 25)
• Hot L Baltimore (April 29-May 23)
• That Championship Season (May 27-June 13)

1976 Summer Season

• The Mousetrap (June 16-June 27)
• Don't Drink the Water (June 30-July 11)
• Threepenny Opera (July 14-August1)
• Guys and Dolls (August 4-August 22)
• Luv (August 25-September5)

1977 Season

• Two for the Seesaw (November 26-December 12, 1976)
• The Lion in Winter (December 16-January 9)
• Wait Until Dark (January 13-January 30)
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (February 3-February 27)
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (March 3-March 20)
• She Stoops to Conquer (March 24-April 10)
• Habeus Corpus (April 14-May 1)
• Pygmalion (May 5-May 22)
• Prisoner of Second Avenue (May 26-June 19)

1977 Summer Season

• Play It Again, Sam (June 23-July 3)
• Inherit the Wind (July 6-July 17)
• Dial M For Murder (July 20-August 7)
• George Washington Slept Here (August 10-August 21)
• The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd (August 24-September 11)

1978 Summer Season

• Cabaret (July)
• Fiddler on the Roof (August 2-August 20)
• The Male Animal (August 23-September 3rd)

1979 Summer Season

• George M!
• Same Time, Next Year

1979-80 Season

• The Passion of Dracula (October 18-November 4)
• Unknown Original (November 8-25)
• The Lady From Maxim's (November 29-December 16)
• A Streetcar Named Desire (February 21-March 9)
• Unknown Original (March 13-30)
• The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (April 3-April 20)
• Sizwe Bansi Is Dead (April 24-May 11)
• Knock Knock (May 15-June 1)

1984-85 Season

• Crimes of the Heart (Sept 27-Oct 21)
• Nice Faces of 1943 (Oct 25-Nov 18)
• Morning's At Seven (Nov 21-Dec 16)
• Foxfire (Jan 10-Feb 3)
• None of the Above (Feb 7-Mar 3)
• A Doll's House (Mar 7-Mar 31)
• Of Mice and Men (Apr 4-Apr 28)

1985-86 Season

• The General's Daughter (Sep 20-Oct 13)
• The Foreigner (Oct 18-Nov 10)
• Our Town (Nov 15-Dec 8)
• Winterfare (Jan 15-Feb 23)
• Home (Feb 28-Mar 23)
• Jaques Brel (Mar 28-Apr 20)
• Aalmauria: The Voyage of the Dragonfly (April 24-May 4)

1986-87 Season

• Greater Tuna
• In the Sweet Bye and Bye
• The Time of Your Life
• Winterfare
• The Fifth of July
• Pump Boys and Dinettes

1987-88 Season

• Winterfare '88 (Feb 18-Mar 13)
• Bulldog and the Bear (Mar 25-Apr 17)
• Master Harold...and the Boys (April 22-May ?)

1988-89 Season

• Krapp's Last Tape and No Exit (Mar 23-Apr 15)
• A...My Name is Alice (Apr)

1989-90 Season

• Education Rita (Sep 21-Oct 14)
• A Streetcar Named Desire (Oct 19-Nov 11)
• The Lion in Winter (Nov)
• Not About Heroes (Jan)
• Voice of the Prairie (Feb)
• Painting Churches (Mar 8-31)
• Steel Magnolias (Apr 5-29)

1990-91 Season

• King Lear (Oct 18-Nov 10)
• Under Milk Wood (Nov 15-Dec 8)
• Charlotte's Web (Young People's Theater) (Dec 14-22)
• Two Rooms (Mar 21-Apr 13, 1991)

1993-94 Season

• The Crucible (Sep 30-Oct 9) (Joinly with MSU Performing Arts, and performed on the Festival Stage of the Wharton Center)
• Lettice & Lovage (Oct 14-Nov 7)
• Arms and the Man (Nov 18-Dec 11)
• I Hate Hamlet (Jan 20-Feb 12)
• Marvin's Room (Mar 3-Mar 27)
• Ah, Wilderness

1994-95 Season

• Laughing Wild (January)
• The Miser (Feb 16-25)
• A...My Name is Still Alice (April)

1995-96 Season

• The Sea Gull (Oct 12-Nov 5)
• Greetings! (Nov 16-Dec 9)
• Unknown Jeff Daniels Work (Jan 11-Feb 3)
• Mrs. Warren's Profession (Feb 29-Mar 23)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mar 28-Apr 21)
• Time Steps (May 2-May 26)

1996-97 Season

• Diva Days (January)
• A Thousand Cranes (Young People's Theater) (Feb 7-15)
• Travels With My Aunt (Feb 27-Mar 22)

1997-98 Season

• Escanaba in 'da Moonlight (Jan 8-Feb 8)
• The Planet of Perfectly Awful People (Young People's Theater) (Feb 13-21)
• Wrong Turn at Lungfish (Mar 5-29)
• You Never Can Tell (Apr 4-May 3)
• Sylvia (May 14-Jun 7)